Lattice work variations: 8 examples

Today we will take a look at Lattice work variations!

I have prepared 8 examples for you in total, but that is totally not the limit. I just hope it will spike your creativity and give you some inspiration because the possibilities of combining various elements are truly endless!

Also, I would like to mention Crewel embroidery here again. If you crave to see more examples of Lattice work to feed your inspiration, you will find LOTS of great ideas in the world of Crewel embroidery. It's a true treasure box!

And make sure you know Lattice work basics before proceeding.

Well, without further ado, let's get straight to the business!

1. Couching variations

The purpose of this example is to remind you about 3 main couching ways in Lattice work. You can couch the thread intersections by one diagonal stitch (in either direction) or two diagonal stitches forming a cross stitch. Any will work. And maybe you can even combine them like in this example? It surely will create a quirky pattern.

2. Chequered grid + French knots

Adding french knots to Latice work is a common practice. And it looks very pretty! One of the ways is to simply add a french knot into the center of every other cell, following imaginary checkerboard. You can use different colors of thread for the thread grid, couching stitches and french knots for a brighter and more eye-catching effect :)

3. Multicolored grid

Speaking of colors, who says that your thread grid has to be monochromatic? Add a pinch of color there as well! In this example, I went the more modest path and used two hues of yellow, close to each other. Then I used 2 colors of green to work cross-stitched couching in the intersections. Feel free to play with colors more, be bolder and add some contrast. I'm sure you can create something captivating! (By the way, I hope you know that using 1-2 threads to form a grid is not the limit either, wink wink)

4. Chequered flowers

Yes, get used to the checkerboard order in these grids! It actually helps to invent really cool patterns, so don't mind the repetitiveness :)

Here I couched all the intersections with one diagonal stitch in the same color as the thread grid. And on top of that, in the corners of some of the intersections I worked small french knots – in my case, I had to go for 1 strand of thread and 1 wrap around the needle. It looks like flowers blooming across the grid in a staggered manner and what makes it more attractive is that they're not placed inside the cells, but in the corners of cells. So it makes you want to take a second look to understand how the pattern really functions.

5. Adjust the distance between grid cells

Most of the time you will see thread grids to be perfectly even in Lattice work, with the same distance between every vertical and horizontal line. However, sometimes you might want to add some variety and make your grid stand out more. Above you can see an example of how you can do that. There are many ways to adorn the cells formed with this kind of grid, for example, place french knots inside of them.

6. Add diagonal lines

Here is an example of diagonal lines added in one direction only. They are usually laid over the primary thread grid, and because they still intercross with other threads in the same place, you can couch all 3 lines together simultaneously. You can also play with colors, using different threads for the primary grid, diagonal lines, and couching stitches. I wouldn't place french knots here to not oversaturate the pattern, but you never know what fun pattern you can invent with your experiments!

Just a random idea: you can actually place tiny knots in triangles formed under the diagonal lines inside the square cells. It would create distinctive lines inside the Lattice pattern, but you have to be careful with colors to not make it too difficult for the eye to focus.

7. Diagonal lines + weaving

This example is a bit more difficult compared to the previous ones so I will break it down on steps for you.

First, we work two thread grids: the primary one with vertical and horizontal lines, and the second one with diagonal lines. The latter grid sits on top of the former.

The primary grid's cells now have diagonal lines' intersections inside of them, and we can couch them. Use 1-2 stitches, as you will.

And in these places, we have now 4 lines crossing each other: two from the primary grid and two from the secondary one. If we count the directions, it will be whole 8! Which makes it easy to weave these intersections. We can't really create something like the spider web stitch here, since the number of directions is even. But even so, we can work a neat wheel here, which is just as cool. 

Bring your thread up near the center of the intersection and start weaving with your needle not leaving the surface of ground fabric.

This is the result.

Granted it's a little complicated with all the layers, but it actually doesn't take much time and all of the efforts are worth it!

8. Add lazy daisies

One of my favorite variations! Isn't it lovely? :)

It is worked on a standard even thread grid. Place lazy daisy in the same manner as we did in example 4, stemming from one intersection. Except that, because the stitches are long, they will start in one corner and finish in another one, taking up a whole of four cells. Remember that lazy daisies are only an embellishment – you still need to couch all of the of intersections.

And that's all!

I hope you draw some squares on a piece of fabric that fits the purpose of practice, and train lattice grids. Especially if you're out of inspiration or just want to flex your embroidery muscles without any real “mission” in head. Just have fun and experiment with shapes and colors – it will bring pretty much the same effect as coloring a mandala with crayons, hehe :)